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Marion Jones
Marion Lois Jones was born on October 12 1975 in Los Angeles, California. She dominated all high school track meets and shocked everyone when she took a full ride scholarship in basketball at UNC. After missing out on the 1996 Olympic Team, she turned her full focus back on Track & Field. While training under coach, Trevor Graham, Marion Jones became involved in the Bay Area Laboratory Co-operative (BALCO) scandal and would later admit to using EPO and steroids during her running career, and go to jail for 2 years for lying to 4 grand juries and check fraud. Doping Allegations Marion Jones' first brush with drug testing problems came in high school where she missed an out-of-competition drug test request because of an overnight package that got misplaced in her coach's office. The sentence for missing such a test would have been a ban of 4 years, but she escaped that with the help of lawyer, Johnny Cochran. Years later, during the 2000 Sydney Olympics, after Marion had won her first gold cuntsg tests for the steroid, nandralone and had withdrawn from Olympic competition. Marion would later claim that C.J. Hunter's failed drug tests destroyed their marriage and cast a bad light on their public image. From the public's perspective, it would seem impossible that C.J. Hunter would have been doping under the same coach, and that his wife would not have known about it. Suspicions started to arise that Marion herself was doping, although she vehemently continued to deny it. They were divorced in 2002. In 2004, Marion's partner, Tim Montgomery, was charged by the USADA (United States Anti-Doping Agency) for using steroids and human growth hormone distributed by BALCO. While he apparently never had a positive drug test, he had admitted to the USADA that he (along with other athletes such as Barry Bonds) had been receiving new, not yet detectable, designer steroids from BALCO. He received a 2 year ban from the sport. Once again, Marion's protests that she herself was not using steroids came under fire, as another of her partners was convicted. Marion Jones' drug test record had thus far been clean. However, in 2006, the Washington Post claimed that an A sample from a competition in Indianapolis had produced a positive result for EPO. Marion retained lawyer, Howard Jacobs, and it was announced in September 2006 that her B sample test had been negative. As a result, she was cleared of the allegations. BALCO In 2004, in an interview on 20/20, Victor Conte, founder of BALCO, announced that he gave Marion Jones five illegal performance enhancing drugs before, during and after the 2000 Sydney Olympics. Marion Jones' ex-husband, C.J. Hunter had also provided testimony to a grand jury that he himself had witnessed Marion Jones' injecting herself in the stomach with BALCO steroids. C.J. Hunter allegedly testified that coach, Trevor Graham, had first obtained EPO from a Mexican connection, and then later began receiving them from Conte at BALCO. He then distributed those to his athletes for use. Despite this damaging testimony, Marion Jones did not receive a sentence for doping and she was not formally charged with doping based on insufficient evidence. Doping Conviction and Ban In 2007, Marion Jones admitted to and pled guilty to the US District Court for the Southern District of New York, that she had lied to federal agents about using the steroid Tetrahydrogestrinone, known as "The Clear", or "THG", prior to the 2000 Sydney Olympics, and had claimed that her coach, Trevor Graham, had been telling her she was taking a flaxseed oil supplement. She was convicted of using performance enhancing drugs and a check fraud case, in which her partner, Tim Montgomery and other people in the BALCO circle were also involved. This admission was part of a plea bargain that would help reduce a heavier sentence of a maximum sentence of five years to five months in prison. She was also sentenced a two year ban from competition. On October 5, 2007, Marion Jones admitted to the world at a press conference that she had used performance enhancing drugs and that she would be retiring from Track and Field. In a published letter, Jones said that she had used "The Clear" until she stopped training with Trevor Graham at the end of 2002. She also stated that she had lied to federal agents because she panicked when they showed her a sample of "The Clear" and recognized it as the same "flaxseed" supplement that she had been taking under Trevor Graham. Videos Notable Achievements Category:Track and Field Category:BALCO Category:The Clear Category:Athletes Category:Olympic Doping